%%Imagine that the area of the Di Linh Plateau looks much like a huge roof with two flat surfaces, one sloping gently towards the west and the other towards the east. It is due to this specific feature that all the waterways on this plateau either direct their course to the west through the territory of Laos to Cambodia and finally flow into Mekong River or down the plains of south central Vietnam into East Sea. Running alongside this sloping roof at an altitude of between 600 and 800 metres is National Highway 14, linking the capitals of Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Ð?c L?c and forming the main communication route for these extensive highlands. Di Linh constitutes the biggest of the group of plateaux commonly known by the names Central Highlands or Western Plateau and which, in the view of many historians both within and outside the country, occupy a strategic position of prime importance in Vietnam. The town of Kon Tum, centre of government for Kon Tum province, is located in the northernmost part of the Di Linh Plateau at the foot of Mt Ngoc Linh - the highest peak in the Central Highlands. This town started developing from the late 19th century, serving at the time as a springboard for the occupation of the Western Plateaux by the French during their colonization of Vietnam. But Kon Tum seems to be a small and remote town compared to its sister capitals, Pleiku in Gia Lai and Buôn Ma Thu?t in Ð?c L?c. Pleiku is very similar to a town reserved for travel recreation and rest, the famous town of Ðà L?t, whose numerous villas and country houses nestle in the shade of luxuriant pine trees. Buôn Ma Thu?t is considered to be the principal town for the whole Central Highlands, with its streets filled with people going about their business and thriving commercial activity. These days, Kon Tum -- a small and poverty-stricken town in the Central Highlands -- seems to live in a seething atmosphere of reconstruction like the beautiful girl in a well-known legend who woke up after a sleep that had lasted too long. It should be said that Kon Tum is now resuming its former position and buckling down to its job of reconstruction under rather difficult circumstances. In a friendly meeting with journalists from Hà N?i, Mr. So Ley Tang, secretary of the newly elected provincial committee of the communist Party, states : "The problem to be tackled now is how the Party committee and the provincial administration take this land out of poverty and backwardness and make it thrive on its own resources and labour force". He further informed journalists present at the meeting that Kon Tum boasts extensive fertile lands, vast areas of forest, and favourable conditions for cattle breeding, to say nothing of abundant water with potential for generating electricity. "But like other provinces in the Central Highlands - he continued - Kon Tum lacks many things, especially skilled labour. It has rather poor infrastructure, not to mention the fact that its economy is still at a stage of self-sufficiency with low education standards and a high incidence of disease". A congress of delegates from the Kon Tum Party committee, the first since the official separation of the province from others and held in late May, could be considered to be a landmark in the provinces move towards renovation. The congress adopted a "Program for socio-economic development" for the province for the next five years, with the aim of shifting the self-sufficient economy to a mixed market-oriented one through the application of a market system under state management and a close combination of the agricultural, industrial and forestry sectors with processing and service industries. The provincial Party Congress advocated entrusting lands and forests to producers and promoting at the same time a movement encouraging people from ethnic minorities to change to sedentary farming along with forest exploitation and cattle breeding. Covering the surface area of Central Highlands is a layer of basalt - a type of red soil of volcanic origin. This is indeed a natural resource contributing to the wealth of the Central Highlands. This explains why economic planners have selected cassava, rubber, coffee and tea as the main crops to be grown in these areas for the development of an agricultural commodities sector. Many areas have in fact been designated as specializing in the growing of these four crops. Only by driving along National Highway 14 can visitors see the extensive areas of land under rubber, coffee and other crops. It should be recognized that the French were the pioneers in the field of planting rubber and coffee in these highlands. Since the beginning of this century, coffee produced in Buôn Ma Thu?t has won widespread fame for being the most delicious and tasty produced in Vietnam, and is popular with consumers both within and outside the country. Mention should be made here of the fact that as well as state-owned coffee and rubber plantations, there exist quite a few "peoples" coffee and rubber plantations. The essence of this process is the combined efforts of the state with independent farmers through long-term contracts. State-owned enterprises undertake to provide funds, seeds, materials and technical guidance for independent farmers in areas earmarked for coffee and rubber plantations. In exchange, the independent farmers commit themselves to paying back the debt from money received from the sale of produce grown on their land and this according to a proportion agreed on by both sides. Surpluses of coffee or rubber can be sold at mutually agreed prices to state-owned enterprises. This model was first applied in Prong, a village with nearly 100 families of the Gia Rai ethnic minority and located in Chu Pa district, Gia Lai province. We were told the following by the village elders : "We have been accustomed to growing coffee for many years, but the most difficult thing for us is the shortage of funds". Since the time when we signed contracts with the provincial coffee enterprise, we have not had to worry either about food between harvests or materials and seeds for coffee growing. Our minds are always at peace when selling our products to the State because we are sure to be duly paid at the right price and we are no longer exposed to cheating and low pricing from dishonest traders. At present, all the households in the village have adequate food and clothing and no longer live in want as in the past. Children can afford to go to school. We feel quite comfortable with continuing to plant coffee for a long time to come ". Even in State-owned farms, management procedures have undergone a change for the better. Instead of payment by fixed wages, the contract system is applied to all workers who must take care, each in accordance with a legally binding agreement, of a piece of land on which they grow an agreed crop in accordance with farming techniques indicated by the State-owned farm and sell the total output to the latter. Chu Ðang rubber plantation manager Ki?u Van An told us : "With this new way of doing things, the latex yield on the State-owned farm has increased considerably. The number of latex thefts has been reduced to almost nothing and workers living standards have clearly improved". According to Mr. Lê Minh H?i, general manager of the Union of Rubber Enterprises in Ð?c L?c province, the long-term policy of the union is as follows : "The existence in parallel of these two management procedures is only a temporary scheme. The union is tending towards applying only one form of management, i.e. entrusting land to the working people and signing contracts with them under a profit-sharing scheme". He added :"This is the road ahead for the Central Highlands economy combining commodity production with the adoption of sedentary farming by ethnic minority shifting cultivators. Mr. Ama Pui, chairman of the Peoples Committee of Ð?c L?c province, and also present at the meeting with Hà N?i journalists, made the following comment : "If the land is entrusted on a good basis to workers, we may create a strong driving force to effect a change in the overall socio-economic life of the Central Highlands". In order to secure economic development for the Central Highlands, water and electricity constitute two major problems urgently needing to be tackled. Although annual rainfall is significant in these areas, the amount of water retained is small as the surface area of the Central Highlands slopes to a certain degree. "In the dry season when the waterways dry up, water for agricultural production and cattle breeding becomes a matter of great urgency". These occurrences, that seem to be contradictory at first glance, offer potential for building hydro-electric power stations with large generating capacity along with large reservoirs capable of supplying enough water for irrigation during the whole year to the Central Highlands. There are also ideas for creating attractive tourist centres in association with the building of reservoirs for hydro-electric power stations and irrigation works. According to estimations by experts, only Se San River, which rises on Mount Ngoc Linh and flows westwards into Mekong River on the border of Laos and Cambodia, would have enough water to feed six hydroelectric power stations each with an annual generating capacity of between half a billion and 3 billion KW. After many years of research and investigation, experts both within and outside the country were unanimous in choosing the Yali waterfall as the most suitable place for building the first hydroelectric power plant on the Di Linh Plateau. According to the project design, this project will have four turbines with combined generating capacity of about 3 billion KW/year, that is equal to one third of that of the Hoà Bình hydroelectric power plant now in operation in northern Vietnam. All necessary preparations for starting the construction of this project are now underway. Over 1,000 workers formerly engaged in the construction of the Hoà Bình project are present on this new site in an effort to provide accommodation, health care and other services for new settlers. Residential areas, hospitals, schools and a network of communication lines have been built and put into operation, dramatically changing the face of the desolate hilly areas along Se San river. Nguyen Khac Kien, the former general manager responsible for building the Hoà Bình hydro electric power plant on Ðà River has now taken up his new post, overseeing the construction of the Yali plant. He told us in a confident voice :"Viewed from an economic angle, the building of the Yali plant would entail less expenditure as compared with earlier hydro-electric power projects. The present project would already have started construction if the necessary funds had been made available. The capital investment needed for preparatory work in 1992 amounts altogether to 30 billion dong. We consider it as necessary to call for funds from investors from both within and outside the country". Capital investment remains a hard nut to crack for all builders without exception. Engineer Nguyen To, director of the department in charge of the Ayun Hha irrigation project in Gia Lai province, informed us : "This is an irrigation project designed to be implemented together with the biggest ever hydro electric power station in Gia Lai province. It is estimated that when completed, this irrigation project will supply enough water for irrigating 13,000 hectares of double-crop land in Ayun Pa district. The total amount of capital investment for this project is calculated to be over 200 billion dong. But it should be said that over the past two years since the project started construction, we have received only just over 24 billion dong. The receipts obtained so far are still very wide of the mark. As a result, the tempo of construction has been at a low pace, many categories of work are having to be delayed. In order to solve this difficult problem, the local authorities have devised a scheme for borrowing money from the population. In Vietnam, the central highlands are thought of by the people as a place of great wealth. But a field trip reveals that poverty still rules this land. This is a truth know to Vietnamese leaders from long ago. In past years, more than a few programmes and plans have been out-lined for the socio-economic development of the Central highlands, but their implementation has been hampered by numerous difficulties and obstacles arising from the former system of economic management and the countrys continual shortage of funds. Taking the floor at the Party Committee congress of Kon Tum province on May 25, Mr. Ð? Mu?i (Secretary General of Vietnamese Communist Party) asserted :"It is a matter of great urgency now that we build the central highlands into a region steadfast in every respect : economic, social, political and for security and national defence". He further commented :"The low level of development of the central highlands can be partly attributed to inadequate responsibility in the central government and the bodies and sectors concerned. For that reason, a comprehensive program must soon be drawn up by the central government with contributions from the local administrations of different provinces in the Central highlands for eventual development of this land". With this statement from the supreme leader of the State, we have every reason to hope that in the not too distant future, Central Highlands will be transformed into a rich and prosperous region as hoped for by every Vietnamese. (VNS) %%THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS The Central Highlands (or Tây Nguyên) consists of mountains and high plateaux located in the west of southern Central Vietnam. This is a major economic area and a cultural centre with many historic sites. Its area covers the administrative territories of four southern Central Vietnam provinces: Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Ð?c L?c and Lâm Ð?ng. Its total area is 5,526,500 hectares, that is one-sixth of the countrys total area. Tây Nguyên boasts 40 ethnic minorities belonging to two language families: South-Asian (Môn-Kho Me) and Austronesian (Malay-Polynesian), with a population of about one million inhabitants. People who speak the Mo6n-Kho Me language are Ba Na, Xo Ðang, Khor, Mnông, etc. Those who speak the Austronesian language are the Gia Rai, Ê Ðê, Raglai, Churu. Besides the ethnic minorities, the Kinh (Vi?t) account for 60 percent of the present population (2.5 million inhabitants). In addition, there are a few ethnic groups who came from the North in 1954 and after 1975: Mu?ng, Tày, Nùng, Thái , Hoa and Dao. Ta6y Nguyên abounds in rivers, lakes and swamps with many beautiful waterfalls. Most important is the Ba river which makes up the natural boundary between the two main areas of Tây Nguyên. To the north is the 200 km long Ngoc Linh range whose highest peak is 2,600 metres high. To the south is the An Khê range belonging to Gia Lai with the highest peak Chu Trian (over 1,300m). South of the Ba river is the Chu Yang Sing range with a 2,400 m peak . From north to south are undulating plateaux and large plains. Most important is the Kon Plong plateau in Kon Tum province with an average altitude of 1,200 m. South of this plateau is the Kon Ha Nung plateau. Then comes Kon Tum, a depression along the Po Co river. Having crossed Kon Tum, the traveller arrives in An Khê, a plain in the south with a depression, Cheo Reo, and the Pleiku plateau belonging to Gia Lai province. Farther south is the Chu Mtah range and Buôn Ma Thu?t plateau belonging to Ð?c L?c province. Pleiku and Buôn Ma Thu?t are the largest plateaux in the area. Then comes the Ð?c Nông plateau with terraces from 900 to 400 m high. To the north-west there is the Ea Sup midland, and to the south there is a depression called Krong Pach Lac with L?c Thiên lake in the middle of the mountain covering 800 hectares. The southern part of the lake belongs to Lâm Ð?ng province where Ðà L?t city (average altitude: 1,500 m) is located. South of Ðà L?t is Di Linh plateau (average altitude: 900 m). In the southernmost part of Tây Nguyên, there lies a small plateau , the Ma plateau, also known as Blao or B?o L?c plateau. Finally, there is the Da Huoai - Cát Tiên plain. The flora in Tây Nguyên, like a few other parts in Vietnam, is very rich in species. There are altogether 3,600 species belonging to nearly 1,200 branches and over 200 families. There is a large reserve of woods, including precious wood and bamboo in Tây Nguyên. Besides, there are pine trees of various kinds. Many parts of Tây Nguyên still retain the primitive character of virgin forests, hardly affected by humans. Like Lower Laos and northwestern Cambodia, Tây Nguyên abounds in wild animals. Its fauna counts among the richest in Southeast Asia. According to recent surveys, there are 25 species of batrachians, 50 species of reptiles, 80 species of fresh water fishes, 100 species of animals and 300 species of birds. Besides, there are elephants, wild buffaloes, deer, boars and hares. Precious animals include yellow monkeys, red-faced gibbons, long-tailed monkeys, black apes , bears, flying foxes, flying squirrels, tigers, panthers, rhinos, and other animals typical of Indochina. Many of these have been listed as endangered animals by IUCN ( International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources). Birds include many species: Partridges, cuckoos, wild doves, etc. The easiest access to Tây Nguyên is of course the flight from N?i Bài airport (Hà N?i) or Tân Son Nh?t (Thành Ph? H? Chí Minh) to Buôn Ma Thu?t airport, Pleiku airport or Lien Khuong airport (Ðà L?t). The most convenient land route is from Quy Nhon to Pleiku via An Khê. Arriving in Buôn Ma Thu?t, the former capital of Tây Nguyên, the traveller can visit the villa of ex-emperor B?o Ð?i, now the guest house of the Buôn Ma Thu?t Party Committee. Farther north is the Tây Nguyên University . The residence of the Catholic archbishop is at the end of Ð?c L?p Street. A little farther there is a Protestant village with Ê Ðê architecture. However, the most beautiful place is Ðà L?t, where there are nearly 50 hotels and over 2,000 villas with different architectures, mostly reflecting a wide variety of French architecture. There are also many scenic sites : Xuân Huong lake, Lake of Whispers, Fairy Lake, the Golden stream and many water falls. Ðà L?t is also the land of many beautiful flowers: Rose, daisy, pansy, gladiola , etc. But most important are the many orchid species. These flowers constitute a source of income for the people of Ðà L?t who export them to many countries and territories in the region. (VNS)